Name: Cheap Rice, Meat, or Curry Soup
Ingredients: 1 ox-cheek (or 2 cow heels or 1 knuckle of veal); 3 quarts water; 4 onions, sliced; 1 bunch pot-herbs; 6 ounces rice, washed; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; curry powder, optional

Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cheap Rice, Meat, or Curry Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

Clean and soak the ox-cheek well.
Boil the ox-cheek in 3 quarts of water with the sliced onions and pot-herbs.
Strain the broth after skimming off the fat.

Finish the soup

Cut the meat into pieces and return it to the pot.
Add the washed rice, pepper, and salt.
Stew for 4 hours until the meat is tender.
For variety, season with curry powder if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek: Provides meat and gelatin, which enrich the broth and make it body-rich as it cooks.
Rice: Thickens the soup as its starch releases during simmering and gives it a hearty texture.
Onions: Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and release flavor into the broth.